Commune of Rimini

Who rules

Title

Podestà or consuls of Rimini for 1199

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

Consuls are documented from 1158 and a General Council (in which Giovanni Malatesta sat) in the 1190s; the podestà Ottone di Mandello is named in 1216. No officer for 1199 or 1200 was found in the sources read.

Overlord

The emperor in law: Barbarossa's diploma of 1157 granted the Riminesi their contado. Rimini is one of the old Pentapolis cities that Innocent III counts as the Church's; it is not governed by any papal officer.

What the realm holds

• Rimini: the walled city on the Marecchia with its port and the suburb of San Giuliano beyond the Roman bridge
• The coast from Bellaria to Cattolica and the plain of the lower Marecchia, Uso and Marano
• Santarcangelo and the castles of the low hills
• Verucchio, the Malatesta castle, under the commune since the submission of 1197
• The lower Conca valley (Valconca) toward Pesaro

How it was acquired

A commune of the twelfth century; Barbarossa's diploma of 1157 gave it its contado; consuls documented with fair certainty in 1158.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Count Montefeltrano and his sons; the Malatesta (now Rimini's men); Ravenna and the March towns in the league of 1198. Rival: Cesena, its neighbour across the Rubicone, with which it has fought repeatedly. Pietro Traversari of Ravenna was styled count at Rimini in 1181, 1185 and 1186.

The realm that morning

The commune governs the city, the coast and the near hills; Verucchio is its since 1197; San Marino on its rock is a community under the bishop of Montefeltro; the Montefeltro counts hold the mountains behind (another record). No war is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Port and coastal trade along the Adriatic; tolls of the bridges and roads (the Via Emilia and the Via Flaminia meet here); salt and fish; grain and wine of the plain.

Military

City militia and knights, the Malatesta's retinue from Verucchio, and the Montefeltro alliance. No figures in the sources read.

Threats

• Cesena across the Rubicone
• A new imperial duke of Ravenna and the Romagna like Markward
• The papal claim to the Pentapolis and the Romagna
• Factions within the city (the Parcitadi and their rivals)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. Start of the 1200 term (date not pinned)New consuls or a podestà take office.Depends on: The usual yearly election. Stopped by: Nothing likely.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1204The commune builds the Arengo, its palace of assembly.Depends on: Peace and money. Stopped by: War with Cesena.

Places of note

• Verucchio: Malatesta castle submitted to Rimini in 1197
• Santarcangelo: Castle and market of the low hills

Where the sources disagree

• The Italian Wikipedia family article dates the Malatesta's submission to Rimini to 1197 without detail; the Dizionario Biografico (Malatesta della Penna) describes it as the Verucchiesi swearing submission before Rimini's council, with the boy Malatesta promising to renew the oath at fourteen. The later citizenship oath of the Malatesta is 18 March 1216.

Evidence: The Enciclopedia Italiana and the Dizionario Biografico articles on the Malatesta and on Montefeltrano give Rimini's alliances; its officers and councils in 1199 are not documented in the sources read.

On the map: The inland edge toward the Montefeltro and the Valconca castles is rough; several Valconca castles were held by rural lords and abbeys whose ties to Rimini in 1200 are not documented.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Deeds of Innocent III, Anonymous (a curial official, perhaps Peter of Benevento) (about 1208 to 1209). The curia's own account of the pontificate's first decade, with letters copied in. Read online